Asteroid Sample-Return Mission Simulator

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Liam Henderson

The need for autonomous spacecraft landing systems and Landers is becoming a more important field of study as we explore into the wider reaches of our solar system. The time delay caused by these large distances makes manual landing a difficult procedure, if not impossible. With this problem in mind it would be useful if the craft could identify hazards on the planet’s surface and choose safe landing zones. The aim of this project was to investigate methods of hazard detection and through the use of PANGU, simulate planetary landings. By researching the background of autonomous space missions, appropriate algorithms were found for hazard detection. A system was developed that identifies the hazards on a PANGU image and outputs a hazard map to a Graphical User Interface. The hazard map is then used to find the safest landing site and the Lander is moved accordingly. The system follows this routine until a landing is complete.